


through the red light

by shutupluke



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: AU, Based on a Tumblr Post, Enemies to Friends, Fluff, M/M, Sort Of, idk I’m bad at tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-04 23:39:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15851793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shutupluke/pseuds/shutupluke
Summary: Michael only got a C in maths, but even he knows that the probability of this scenario playing out every day for two months is ridiculously low. Still, it keeps happening. His life is so pathetic it’s literally defying maths.~or: Michael’s arch nemesis just happens to be a guy who walks down the same road as him. It’s about as dumb as it sounds.





	through the red light

**Author's Note:**

> So, I’m currently writing a different fic but I saw a prompt that was so mashton that I just had to write it?
> 
> Shoutout to Dani and Ashlyn for keeping the ship alive with me xx
> 
> The post that inspired me is right here x
> 
> http://sarcastic-snowflake.tumblr.com/post/91352743913/so-every-morning-i-get-off-the-train-and-start-my

“Excuse me,” Michael mutters, attempting to push through the crowd of commuters all rushing to get off the train. It’s not that he thinks he’s more important than them, that he deserves to get off the train first, or anything- it’s just that he has to try and win. He’s barely made it out of the station before he realises he’s too late again. 

Red light guy is already three steps ahead of him, because of course he is, and Michael knows by now that he will never catch up. It’s an infuriating routine. Michael and this one other dude walk down the same straight road for ten minutes every morning, but somehow Michael is always three steps behind him. What this means is that Michael will _always_ get stopped by the red light at the crosswalk, and the other guy will _always_ beat him to the street corner. 

Michael only got a C in maths, but even he knows that the probability of this scenario playing out every day for two months is ridiculously low. Still, it keeps happening. His life is so pathetic it’s literally defying maths.

Accepting defeat again, Michael fishes his phone and AirPods out of his bag and shuffles his walking to work playlist. It’s Paramore- Grudges. Of course it is. 

~

 

Michael is running two minutes behind schedule, which would be totally fine if it weren’t for the fact that today _could_ finally be the day he wins. It probably won’t be, but the potential for victory is enough to make Michael contemplate calling an uber. He doesn’t, but he skips his breakfast to make up for lost time. In fact, by the time Michael is at the train station he realises he might actually be earlier than ever before. Still, when the train pulls up five minutes later it’s already so full it looks like nobody else can fit. Michael’s the closest stop before the train terminates, so it makes sense that he always ends up cramped. He’s also considerably taller than a lot of the other commuters, so it’s easier for him to just grab the ceiling rail and pray he doesn’t fall over. 

Michael gets off the train, practically swept along by the current of the other passengers. An advantage of the height thing tends to be that Michael can pick out faces in a crowd fairly easily, and so Michael quickly scans for red light guy amongst the group. 

He doesn’t see him. His heart almost skips a beat- but he’s not going to get ahead of himself. It only counts, really when they’re out on the street. 

Before he knows it, though, Michael is on the street, and red light guy is nowhere to be seen. Holy shit. He’s really winning. Today might actually be the day. He walks slightly faster, fuelled by adrenaline and victory. He’s about to cross the street, already somehow ten minutes down. He’s definitely in front of red light guy. He has to be. 

That is until, out of nowhere, red light guy RUNS right in front of him- and panting, says “I’ve been winning for two months now, that can’t end yet. Have a good day, see you tomorrow!” 

Michael just gawks at him, too shocked to say anything. Red light guy flashes him a winning smile, and runs across the street. The light turns red, and Michael stands there, watching his nemesis walk to the street corner. This time, he turns and waves at Michael. 

What the actual fuck?

~

 

“At least it wasn’t just in your head,” Luke tells him munching obnoxiously on a protein bar. “Like okay, he might have robbed you of a well deserved victory but now you know that you weren’t crazy for feeling victorious.” 

Michael hums. “Maybe.” He kicks his feet up onto Luke’s desk (Luke’s eyes narrow, but they’ve worked together for long enough that he doesn’t move Michael’s feet). Comfortable now, Michael carries on. “I don’t know- I don’t think I needed him to acknowledge the feud to know it was real- but you best believe that from now on this is war.”

Luke sighs. “Oh brilliant, so is that what we’re going to do instead of Alex’s admin?” 

Michael crosses his arms pointedly. “Feel totally free to do all of the admin you want, Lucas, but don’t get jealous when I rope Calum into strategising instead.” 

“Fine, fine, you got me there. Okay- let’s talk train carriages…” 

They plan Michael’s attack for maybe 20 minutes before Ashley comes to knock on Luke’s door. 

“Luke, Alex wants the Stephens file on his desk in two hours-” she stops abruptly, spotting Michael. Her eyes scan the rest of the office, and when she sees the nonsense scribbled on Luke’s whiteboard she sighs. “I take it you two have not been working on the Stephens file.” 

“Sorry, Ashley,” Michael says sheepishly. “I’ll leave you to work, Luke.” 

“Tell me it was important, at least.” 

“Urgent,” Luke replies, and Michael has to smile. “Michael spoke to the red light guy.”

Ashley’s jaw drops. “No, you didn’t! Okay, tell me everything first, and then get back to work.”

~

 

Michael gets a message from Luke three hours into the research Ashley has asked him to do. Weirdly, a fair few people at work had become invested in Michael’s competition- there was a whole Slack channel for conversations about it. The only members were Luke, Ashley, Calum and Jack from finance, but still. Alarming. 

Luke: btw what do u think he meant by ‘have a good day see you tmrw’ ?????

Michael: idk ??? nothing ??? that he’s an arrogant asshole who wants me to suffer ???

Luke: did u ever think like ….. maybe he’s gonna try and speak to u tmrw???

Michael: No???

Calum: well you did say he like waved and smiled at you. And he told you to have a good day. So, maybe if you’d said something to him you could have walked together.

Ashley: I think I’ve seen this porn actually

Jack: this is sexual harassment in the workplace and I won’t stand for it, Ashley

Michael ignores them and gets back to working- but part of him is admittedly distracted. Red light guy was cute- Michael wasn’t blind. He’d noticed that pretty much straight away. 

There was the hair- sort of caramel brown coloured, cut shorter on the sides and back but a little unruly on top. He was always in a suit, usually navy or charcoal, but he wore a heather grey number Michael really liked this one time. He wore glasses most days, but the first time he took them off Michael realised he had really nice eyes. 

‘See you tomorrow’. What the fuck _was_ that supposed to mean? 

Because- well, it was one thing that Michael had started paying attention to the person who was in front of him every day on his walk to work- that was fairly normal. Maybe the amount of attention he paid was a bit creepy, but in general, it made sense. Michael had walked behind red light guy everyday for two months. 

But, now he actually thought about it, Michael didn’t even know if there was somebody who walked behind him. Granted, part of Michael’s frustration was that he and the guy were always, at most, five steps apart from one another, but still, if there was somebody five steps behind Michael he wouldn’t know what they looked like well enough to recognise them from behind. 

Okay, maybe his appearance wasn’t the most typical- what with his height, and his pink hair and everything, but still. Red light guy had to have been paying attention to Michael without Michael noticing, because they hadn’t even made eye contact before yesterday.

Before he knows it, it’s 4:55 and Calum is pushing open his office door. “Eventful day, huh?” he says, as Michael shuts down his Mac. 

“No kidding.” 

They walk to the train station in companionable silence, waving goodbye once they get inside and heading for their two separate trains. 

Oddly enough, Michael has never seen red light guy on the way home from work. He and his friends have worked through a few different scenarios, but the theory that sits best with Michael is that curly haired guy is always the last guy out of the office, so they’re never walking at the same time, and Michael gets off too early to really search for him on the train. 

Either way, Michael isn’t worried. After all, he had been assured that they would see each other tomorrow. 

~

 

It’s the next morning, and Michael is perfectly on schedule this time. He debates switching out his trusted loafers for a pair of actual running shoes, but something tells him he won’t need them. 

Everything happens as it always does- Michael gets on the train at the last minute, stands awkwardly for five minutes, hoping to avoid physical contact as much as is possible, and then he gets off the train. 

Michael scans the crowd for curly hair and sees it, just slightly ahead of him. He sighs, accepting defeat once more, and is about to get his phone out when he realises he’s left his headphones on the train. “Shit!” He exclaims, because- obviously. 

He turns around and battles the crowd first and then the train attendant to hop back on the train. He sees his headphones on the floor- they had to have fallen out of his pocket as he got on. He’s just grateful nobody robbed him. It wouldn’t be the first time. Either way, he apologises to the attendant and steps down from the train onto the now practically deserted platform. 

He says practically, because there’s one guy still standing there, looking directly at him with what kind of seems like a fond smile on his face. 

“Hi?” Michael says, although it sounds a lot like “what the fuck is going on?” He steps closer to his tentative nemesis, offering a nervous smile. 

“I looked and you weren’t behind me, so I figured something had happened. You okay?” 

Michael blinks owlishly. “You-” he cuts himself off, shaking his head disbelievingly. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, thank you. I just dropped my headphones.” He holds them up, and then feels like a dickhead. 

Red light guy smiles at him, “Ahh, okay. Well, I’d better get going. You know, gotta keep up my winning streak and all.” 

“You know, running up from behind me is totally breaking the rules. I think you forfeit based on that alone,” Michael huffs. 

Red light guy cocks his eyebrow, amusement plastered all over his face. It’s smug, absolutely, but it’s also massively, distractingly hot. “Is that so?” 

“I reckon, yeah. I could have beat you multiple times if I had just sprinted.” 

He nods. “Right, of course. And you didn’t because…” 

“Well, that would have been cheating!” 

Red light guy giggles, and Michael’s heart stops. When he stops laughing, he introduces himself. “I’m Ashton.” 

_Ashton_. The name fits him perfectly. 

“Michael.” 

“Walk with me, Michael?” Ashton asks, and Michael agrees. They bicker good naturedly about whether or not Ashton had broken the rules, (he absolutely had) and before Michael knows it they’re at the traffic lights. Michael can’t wipe the grin off his face for long enough to ask how exactly Ashton always managed to get there before him- but it doesn’t matter too much. He feels like he’ll have plenty of time to find out.

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr (mashlumtrash) and remind me to write more xx


End file.
